Playdate!

Bacon came over to play with Mia last night.  They're not really buddies, but after a little while they finally started to get along Ok.

Christmas

Mia hates Christmas... she especially hates the vibrating bark collar - but in other news, it works.  Just having it on works and also crushes her soul.  It has a very similar affect as the cone of shame where she just knows that something shameful is happening so she might as well lay in a corner and pout about it.

No more big holidays for a long time though, so she'll have plenty of time to recover from the huge family Christmas at the house.  I think she loves having people around, but the overall excitement was too much for her in general.  She was such a good trooper though - all the kids survived.

The Eve

Christmas Eve... this is what happens.  You go buck wild and fall asleep naked.

Sherpa Coat

OMG today is freezing outside.  Today was Mia's first walk wearing her sherpa coat from LL Bean, and she loved it.  I put it right on without any fights and then walking she seemed to stay nice and warm without over heating at all.  Mia is a southern dog so this kind of cold is a total annoyance to her (and us too).  There's nothing she loves more in the world than total and complete comfort - and looking super awesome at the same time.  Today is too cold for the dog park so we're going to stick to a few walks around the neighborhood and some active playtime in the house.

Bark Collar - Take 1

Well here we are on a Saturday morning with all the blinds open waiting for the next person to walk by to see how Mia will react wearing her new vibrating bark control collar.  Don't worry I checked it out and the vibration will not hurt her at all, it's just meant to startle her.  We've been waiting and waiting and waiting and so far only 1 person has gone by and no matter how hard I tried she didn't notice this person.  She can't seem to figure out what I'm doing... and I can't figure out where everyone is!

Mia's Growing Up

Mia had a really good week - no calls to the vet, no incidents at daycare, her paws are looking great, and just a little weird (still scared sometimes) behavior.  My little girl is growing up!  She even got her very first bone this week.  It's so funny how fast she seemed to go from being a full out puppy to a somewhat more mature dog.  She's still playful and crazy, but just in a different way.  She's so tired these days from daycare (they now have a bigger play area) that after she eats dinner, she plays with us for Maybe 30 minutes and then goes to take a really long nap by herself in her crate.  I wanted to make it more appealing to her so I bought a really fluffy bed and lined it all with soft blankets and it's also covered with blanket.  This was the best and worst idea.  It's so comfortable to her now that she likes it a little bit too much.  She rarely naps outside of it now, and at night when we're vegging out in the family room watching tv Mia heads into her crate in the office for a snooze.  I miss her at night... I've become needy for her company.

For Christmas I want to get her a more comfortable bed for the family room, maybe that will help... I don't know how much you can pamper a dog but I'm just about there.  It's not like the bed she has in there now is Uncomfortable or anything, it's just normal.  I spend more time thinking about how I can make her happier than I do about anything else at home - I may have a problem.  I never ever thought that I was going to be like this with a pet, but then again once I get attached to something I start to become a little bit crazy about it... but what's the harm in that?

Hair Explosion

This look means that she wants to go for a walk and she will Not quit staring at me until she gets it.

This is probably another first time very stupid thought, but when we first got Mia I was so happy that she didn't seem to shed much at all.  She has very short hair to begin with, and I'd call it hair and not fur.  This was in September and even into November I was still giving thanks that she shed less than imagined.  Now that it's post-Thanksiving a switch has flipped and for about 2 weeks Mia freaking exploded her fur whenever we went: car was a disaster, kitchen floor a nightmare, and vacuuming was even worse if possible.  Every time I vacuumed it looked like a small animal was in the catch.  Each time I swept up a small area in the kitchen it contained what looked like a furry pet.  Apparently her summer coat is gone and her thicker and warmer winter coat is now in.  I can see the difference mostly on the underside of her where before she didn't really have much hair at all and now it's thick and luscious.  This is good, we always wonder if she's cold at night when everyone is sleeping.  I know she's an animal, but we still think about these things.

Improving on The Fear and The Growths

Mia is much less afraid of things now than she was on Sunday or Monday so things are slowly improving.  Our tactic over the past couple of days has just been to ignore it.  If she whines and slinks around we just pretend its not happening.  If she refuses to walk past the laundry room to get to the car we just take her out the front door.  So far it's been working pretty well and her mood has improved a great deal.

• She was previously afraid of walking past the fridge.  She will usually walk past it now, but it takes her a while sometimes.  She eyes it suspiciously.
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• She was afraid of walking past the hall closet.  I think we're mostly done with this one, but on occasion she will just avoid it.  
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• She wouldn't go anywhere near the laundry room for a while, and that one is still with us.  She ran by it twice, but its still on her radar for sure.
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• To go outside she would slink under the kitchen table in order to get to our deck door, and she actually does still do this.  I think she just likes it now but hopefully it won't stick too much longer.

These little things are disappearing at a much faster rate than we imagined.  The problem is that when you start to Google things you read about the worst possible scenarios of dogs becoming afraid of things either for life or for like months/years and you panic.  I think this is really how it is when you Google anything like this.  You have a sore throat so then you Google it and suddenly you think you might have cancer and you Freak out!  Don't do that.  The best thing for me is to get advice from people who have gone through similar situations.

Mia also has two growths on her feet right now.  The vet didn't really know what they were, but said they could really be anything or nothing.  It cost us $125 for her to diagnose this little problem and give us some meds that may or may not be helpful and put Mia in a lampshade.  Yesterday, a girl at doggie daycare told us that she sees cysts just like these in a lot of labs that they have and they go away with some foot soaks.  I almost called the vet right there to yell at them.  This young girl was able to help us out without costing us an arm and a leg and a 2 hour visit to Mia's most dreaded location - she deserves a mighty pat on the back. We're probably not going to go back to the vet to followup on her feet but we'll just keep an eye on them and continue to give them good soaks at night.  Sure we're first time dog owners so how should we know, but I feel a little taken advantage of there.  The growths are much smaller now than a week ago, so things are looking up all around!

Scaredy Cat

Problem: Mia is now afraid of Everything.  More specifically she's afraid of the laundry room, the refrigerator and the hall closet.  She's not just a little afraid or weary, she's all out terrified.  The only way she'll walk the short distance from the office (her safe room) to our kitchen door is by slowly and super low to the ground walking to get to underneath the kitchen table.  When she walks she looks all around the whole time as if something might jump out to attack her.  This all started on Friday when she decided she was afraid of the laundry room.  On Saturday we turned on the ice maker, and then it was all down hill from there so we turned it off but it didn't matter.

I don't think it was just the turning on of the ice maker that made her so afraid, something must have happened to really scare the life out of her and we can't figure it out.  We've given her a few days to try and get over it, we've tried multiple tactics.  On Sunday, I tried luring her into the family room (past the fridge) with many many many treats but that proved fruitless.  She even let most of the treats sit there uneaten.  At one point I got her to go really close to the scary machine, but she still won't just walk past it.  Then later I decided on hard love, and dragged her past these scary things.  That didn't do much.  I've tried walking along with her petting her and saying "it's Ok, good girl, it's ok, etc." still nothing. Daddy tried picking her up and putting her in the family room, and that just got her stuck there.  She's happy once she gets in there and is happy to stay there.

This is all very bizarre behavior coming from a dog that usually enjoys exploring and roaming around.  She usually will follow me around everywhere, even into the laundry room, but now she's resigned herself to just stay in the office and whine and cry if she's super frustrated but she still won't budge.

I think she's slightly better today, somewhat braver, but overall she's still not in the right set of mind.  We will call her trainer if this keeps it up through the week, but it's really just very confusing.  We're not aware of any trauma occurring... she's mostly happy, eating normally, eliminating normally, and sleeping well.

Any thoughts on how we can help her?

Woops

Last night, I took Mia out for her last visit to the bathroom and she went right back into her crate when I got back in.  I filled up her little water cup for the night inside the crate, and I guess I didn't shut the door. I didn't sleep well at all last night, so when morning came I wasn't exactly running downstairs at 7 to wake her up.  She barked at something around 7:30 but it was quick so we figured she heard another dog and then went back to sleep.  We both got up to go to the bathroom and then got back into bed multiple times.  At around 8:30 we heard the sound of her jingling collar and suddenly she was standing in our bedroom (we sleep with the door open).  I sat there for like 5 minutes trying to remember if I shut her door, but I think I didn't for whatever reason and Abe went to bed after me and didn't notice that it was open either.  

We ran downstairs to check on her destruction and oddly enough, she didn't do anything except eat something neon blue and throw it back up in big undigested hard chunks.  There were no pee accidents and no surprise dumps, so she just sort of ate something and it didn't stay down.  We have no idea what it was.  We searched all over the place, but we really have no idea what we own that was this color.  And since we thought the crate was shut we had pizza boxes and all sorts of stuff on the counter and she totally ignored that stuff which is good I guess.  Someday this week I'm going to be like, "where is my ...."

Mia the Model

How awesome does Mia look?  We totally butchered this photo session, but Mia was a super trooper.  It turns out that even though she's mostly pretty crazy she really will do anything asked of her if my brother is behind the camera waving his hands like a mad man.  His girlfriend is a freelance photographer that does mostly landscapes and sometimes weddings and such, but I made a special request for her to do a family photo for us so she could practice her pet photography skills.  See how I framed that?  Well she bought it and jumped at the chance.  She probably took like 60 photos but only shared about 10 with us which means that the rest were shit, and that's cool, we really only wanted a few to turn out well.  This was not one of the best ones, but it's for sure the funniest.  My only regret is that we didn't have a blue sweater made for her too so we could All be matchy-matchy.

Back to the Vet

The good news is that we waited about 1 full hour to see the vet with other dogs and people coming and going and Mia was on her best behavior.  She had a lot of anxiety during that amount of time but she didn't bark even once, and usually she's in total and utter meltdown mode barking at everyone and everything and it's a very BAD scene.  This time (our first trip post-bootcamp) she was so well behaved letting out only a few little whines.

The bad news is that she has this growth between two toes on her back foot and it grew really quickly from only becoming something about 5 days ago to today when it was enormous.  The vet pricked it to get a sample to put on a slide and it just about exploded blood all over her - it was disgusting.  She doesn't really know what it is or how it happened, but she said that it could be from Mia licking her feet and causing an infection or it could have been a splinter that became infected or it might not be infected at all and just be something that will pass on its own.  After the prick there was a good amount of blood so then Mia had to wear the cone of shame and we were given 2 weeks of antibiotics and something to bath her foot in 2x a day.

The cone completely changed her personality from being high energy and happy to being depressed and sad.  It was as if this one device somehow sucked all the life from her... and it's heart wrenching.  We just need to watch her and make sure she's not trying to lick it at all and then we can take it off while we continue her meds and soaks.  I'm glad that we went in, but this whole experience took 2 hours because they were running behind schedule and because for some reason every time we go there it takes Forever and by the time we're done everyone is hungry and cranky.  We're going to schedule these visits for earlier in the day from now on, 2 hours is just too crazy for us.  Hopefully this growth heals and no further action will be required.  Poor Mia has gone to the vet so many times since she's been in our care, she must think we're monsters!

Barking Insanity

Mia didn't do that great at Thanksgiving... with the kids.  With the adults she was like A+ with the kids she was like C.  She just barked at them a lot from the beginning to the end 5 hours later.  We thought about it a lot and she really is doing better all around, but it's hard to practice the whole kid thing without kids being around.  She's just barky in general, so no matter what, even if she stops after 1 bark or 2, she isn't able to fully control her initial reaction to every little thing. 

A vibrating bark control collar is on the way for her - and this is Not a shock collar, it uses vibrations only.  There are a large variety of control collars to buy for a dog from sprays to smells to shocks, but we were most comfortable with using the vibrating one that vibrates according to the pitch of her bark.  I don't know anyone who has actually used this collar so I'm not sure what to expect (our trainer did recommend it though), all I know is that Mia is driving me completely insane with her barking.  INSANE.

The day after Thanksgiving we had a family portrait taken for our holiday card this year by my brother's girlfriend who does freelance photography.  It really figures that Mia was horrible on Thanksgiving and Wonderful the day after.  She stayed completely still for the camera for 30 minutes in different areas around our yard.  All it took was my brother waving a his hands like a lunatic behind the camera to get her attention.  Once she locks in on something she will stay there for 5 seconds which is plenty of time to snap a few pics.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them!  I'm pretty sure the doggie will look better than the humans.

Mia also had a very successful overnight play date with Bodhi and Bebe.  It was successful in that the playing was so good, all very gentle and tame.  Bodhi peed in the house a few hundred times, but because he's such a well mannered dog otherwise it was hard to get mad... also he only peed on areas that could be easily washed.  Mia was great, she might have been a little bit too much puppy for these dogs who were both about a year or two older than her but they all had fun together.

Tomorrow We Need Good Behavior!

Mia had a couple of bad days at daycare where she got a little roughed up.  A bad scratch to her face and then a scratch on her stomach, and not to say that she didn't deserve it... it still wasn't what want for her of course.  The wounds are healing nicely though with some Neosporin that mommy applies each day and things to be back to normal at her daycare so that's good to see.

Today we spent some time practicing the doorbell with her.  She seems to think the doorbell is a threat to her for some reason.  She may know that it means strangers are coming to the door and her reaction to it is pretty intense - mass barking.  This is something that we are going to need to work on everyday for a while until she comes to realize that whatever happens after the noise will not cause her harm.  She's my little princess but she does not like to feel threatened and strange things and sometimes strangers make her feel this way.

Taking her in and out of daycare we often walk by people that we don't know and she won't react, which is huge.  Sometimes taking her in the car and parking in a parking lot while one of us runs in to do a quick errand can cause her anxiety.  She doesn't bark anymore, but she will growl and sometimes whine.  Her growl is actually just part of her bark, it's the noise she makes Before she barks.... so it's not like a mean "I'm going to attack you" type of growl which is hard to explain to people who don't have dogs.  Just the growl is really just like anxiety level 1 or 2 while a full out bark is anxiety level 5 or 6.

Tomorrow is a big day for her.  We're going to have 8 guests (including 2 children), and I know that once we get past the initial greeting everything will be just fine.  I am definitely worried about her initial greeting to the little girls though, they are very little and will likely be afraid if she acts badly.

A Better Day

Well today is a new day, and Mia is much better today.  After an email and a phone call, our trainer talked me off the ledge.  Jermaine told us that dogs have good days and bad days just like humans and that it won't happen 2 days in a row and he's right.  Daycare said that she played very well today and was a good little doggie.

One item worth mentioning is that I wasn't correcting her right when people came to the door.  I was tugging to the side, as I would on a walk if she got distracted.  It's highly effective on a walk because it brings her head back to the front so she gets back on track quickly.  This correction is different.  Instead, you pull up on the leash and as long as its placed properly (very top of her neck) I will actually suppress her barking.  It will of course be very uncomfortable for her but it will also give her the chance to figure out why it's happening. We need to practice the doorbell with her, even just the 2 of us can do this.  Just as we practice her commands each day (and she's doing so well with those!!), we may need to practice the doorbell too until she realizes that its not a threat.

This will not be the first time that Mia wakes up on the wrong side of the dog bed.  It happens, and all we can do is prepare for it and know how to react when it does.

I also spoke with the daycare staff about Mia's incident on Friday when a meanie apparently scratched her face.  It took a few days for the owner to get back to me, but she did and she was clear that this is not up to her standards and it shouldn't have happened.  She's going to speak to the staff and make sure they are more diligent with actively watching the dogs during play groups.  I've been putting Neosporin on the cuts and they are healing... I just wish that it hadn't happened.  Scuffles are fine, little scratches are Ok but this was just a whole different level of rude.  I hope this doesn't happen again because she's just too pretty to be all scratched up!

Not the Best Day

I got up bright and early to go to the farm stand with my mom, so I had to take Mia for a morning walk to try and get out some of her energy before she had to go back into her crate for an hour... the walk went great, she was heeling and well behaved, I thought it might be a good start to the day.  The day never got any better from there.

When my mom came over, she rang the doorbell, and that instantly set Mia off barking at the door and then at my mom.  Typically she never barks at my mother, so this was not normal for her.  She barked and jumped and barked and jumped, and finally she settled down.  Then I had to drag her into her crate kicking and screaming, shut the door, and then she whined.  Well, sorry dog, mommy has chores to do.

After that quick errand, I decided to take Mia to the dog park for an hour to run around before having guests over.  This didn't go well.  We got into the park and immediately Mia went right up to the only child in there and started barking at her.  Luckily she was like 11, and not a really little kid.  She barked and barked, and finally stopped and the little girl ended up playing with her for a while.  So why bark at the kid?

I was warned yesterday that there is a mean shepherd dog that likes to play at the park on weekend mornings and today we met her.  The minute the dog arrived she went right after Mia.  The dog was Mean.  Later, they got into a tug of war battle that lasted close to to 10 minutes - my baby won.

I knew that Mia had some toy aggression from our trainer with other dogs, so I was a little worried when they started to play with a frisbee.  It was fine, she wasn't any more aggressive with the toy than any of the other dogs. Then suddenly and without warning the mean dog attacked Mia, they were fiercely jumping on each other clawing, biting, etc.  There was no blood, and the owner of the meanie broke it up after a few seconds but it didn't make me happy.  More passive dogs came into the park after that to help the dynamic and there was no more funny business, and we left after about an hour of play and prepared for having guests over.

A couple girlfriends came over... and I tried a new tactic this time.  Instead of having them ring the bell and open both doors, I left only the glass doors closed so that she could see them coming and not be so surprised when the doorbell rang.  It definitely worked a lot better, she barked a few times maybe even a handful and then jumped on them upon entry (sigh) but it was still much better than when she rudely greeted my mother this morning.  A few minutes later when I was showing them around the house, Mia peed on the basement floor.  She's Never peed on the basement floor before, and it's been over a month since her last bathroom accident and that was at the vet office not in the house.  I find that really puzzling.  She may have gotten overly worked up or something, I'm not sure.  After that she was really well behaved and occasionally barked at other dogs that walked by or walkers but not half as much as she used to.  I was at least able to get her to stop pretty immediately and she knew that she was doing something wrong so that's something.

After all that barking and all that craziness, my little pumpkin is curled up in a ball and snoozing.  Must be nice... oh and then another barking fit.  Today is not her best day.

Mia's First Dog Park Visit

I agonized over where to take Mia to run around today... there is only 1 park that is anywhere near us so I felt like although it's sort of in an area that I don't really like to go to, it was important that we at least Try it before driving an hour to another park.  It was sort of hard to find and you have to drive on the highway and then through the hood to get there, but once we got there it was good (15 mins. away!) and the people were really nice.  We spent about an hour there and first there were 2 other dogs, then 4 other dogs, and then 6.  She was the most well behaved dog in the group - and my biggest fear is that she would be a bully, but that wasn't the case at all.  There were toys and water around and she was able to share everything without being a meanie, so I'm so happy with today's efforts (and now she's totally exhausted and dirty).

To the Face

Someone scratched or bit Mia in the face yesterday at daycare.  We are pretty pissed off about it considering that nobody told us about it for one and this shouldn't happen for two.  I wrote the owner an email and we'll see what she has to say about this.  Daycare is great, it really lets your dog burn off their energy all day but the downside is that there tends to be a lot of dogs and just a few humans to manage the craziness.  There are several daycare workers there that we really like, but we've never actually seen them in action... they could all be standing around chatting for all we know.

I found it, cleaned it up, and the vet said to put Neosporin or Bacitracin on it to help it heal.

In more annoying news, Mia and I went for a walk this morning and she was awful.  She pulled all around, smelled all around, and whined to go see another dog while pulling me across the street.  I felt like I corrected her the entire time but she just wasn't caring.  During our afternoon walk I'll try to be more firm or something.  I don't know what else to do.  Jermaine said that she was going to challenge us to see how far she could take things sometimes, that should be expected, so today is just one of those days it seems.

Mia the Mellow

Mia continues to do really well at home after her bootcamp training.  We practice her commands every day morning and night, and she really loves going to daycare while we are at work.  They changed up her routine at daycare, which we just found out tonight and now we understand why she's been so pooped each night.  Previously they did 1 hour in smaller playgroups, and then 1 hour in the crate to nap/rest, and then rotate.  Now she does 1 hour out of the crate in a bigger playgroup but also a much bigger space (huge warehouse) and 30 minutes of crate time, rotating still.  She's getting much more exercise and also really is able to truly run and she's a really fast runner.  One of her favorite games with other dogs (and us) is to chase.  She asks us to chase her almost every night before completely just melting into her doggie bed and snoozing from 8-10pm before bedtime at 10pm.  I've taken her in car rides on my own and I do still need to correct her sometimes, but it's rare.  Just by saying Hey from the driver's seat, she'll relax... or I may need to say Hey a few times if something is a little bit strange - like when another car is parked right next to us with another dog inside, but we can drive past other dogs with no issues.

I think that she's a much happier dog now that she has her anxiety under control.  Imagine if you walked around all the time in a state of worrying?  That's what she was like before, but now very few things rub her the wrong way.  Tomorrow I'll be working from home, so I'll be able to take her for a long morning, noon, and evening walk and I should really get to see how far she's come.

She's Back!

Mia arrived home from her 3 week boot camp today.  She did a really fantastic job there, it's amazing.  When Jermaine brought her back we had a session with him on how we should proceed with her - bottom line is that we can't be the same as we were before.  Now that she has learned new behaviors and new skills its important that we don't become lazy dog owners - when she does something wrong we need to correct her immediately because she will push us.  We took her for a short walk around the block and she walked in the "heel" position the entire time, and when she didn't, we gave a quick tug on the leash to get her attention back.  She did beautifully... and then a dog and stranger walked by - and she didn't react.  She looked and she started to think about barking, but she didn't bark.  That's never happened before, that's usually her most mortifying behavior.  Jermaine showed us how he gets her to sit, lay down, and stay.  The stay command isn't perfect yet, but getting her to stay for even 10 seconds was still really impressive to us.  Abe was able to get her to stay after he left too for about 15 seconds before she decided to get up.

In the next few days we'll really be able to see more behaviors - going into the crate, staying in the crate, riding in the car, what she's like at daycare, etc.  So this is just the beginning, but so far we're really happy to see her progress and intend on working hard to keep it going.  It feels so good to have your dog on her leash and know that she's not going to go berserk at every thing we walk past!

Almost Time!

Mia has made it through 3 weeks of boot camp training and Jermaine said that she has learned exceptionally fast.  She arrives home at 3pm today and then we are going to have a session with Jermaine and take her for a walk and see how she reacts differently now to things than she used to.  It's exciting!

More to come...

Week 2 Update

We just got our weekly update on Mia's progress at boot camp.  This week she really has learned how to play less rough with the other dogs that she sees at the day camps.  She's very nice with the small puppies, which is good to know.  Jermaine gives her a command to drop a toy when he wants her to and you know what?  She actually does it.  Before camp, if I told her to drop it - she'd run away with it.  She does continue to work on her toy aggression around other dogs, so Jermaine still advises that this is something that we will need to watch out for.  Without toys around she does very well with the other dogs.  He's been taking her around in the car, and he straps her into the backseat on a doggie seat belt and instead of barking at every single person and dog that passes by she just looks.  Occasionally she will let out one tiny bark and that's it but she understands that she's not supposed to be vocal about the strangers.  We have been putting her in the back of our Jeep and using a doggie divider which was working Ok.  She liked it back there and could jump in and out of it pretty easily.  The only downside is that when she gets really worked up, that situation is not good because you are too far away to correct her before she's in full on meltdown mode.  So keeping her closer is better, and actually keeping her safer as well.  I can't even tell you the amount of times that a turn was taken a bit too sharp and our poor dog would end up rolling around more than anyone would have liked.

I asked Jermaine how she has been during the mornings.  Instantly, he said that she was great.  He actually has to wake her up.  I was like: WHAT!  Perhaps one of the most annoying things to new dog owners is having your dog wake you up barking/crying/whining at 5:30am on a weekend or even a weekday.  He said that the first 2 days she barked a little bit, but then she really got into a routine and with all of her intensive training and exercise that she's just Really tired and likes to sleep in as much as she can.  So he wakes her up and then she comes out of her crate and stretches for a few minutes (upward and downward dogs of course) and she's ready to go.  He advises that the key to this is making sure your dog has gotten a lot of physical and mental stimulation during the day - which is obvious, but what isn't obvious is How to do that.  If I didn't have to go to work everyday, then I'd be out there throwing the ball and running with her just to get her to sleep in but that's just not feasible.  She goes to doggie daycare and does get a lot of exercise and when she gets home she typically is Very tired but it's just not the same somehow.  I'm still not sure what we can do about that.  I think Caesar would tell me to put her on a treadmill, but we don't have one yet.

This is her last week away at camp, and she's going to be enrolling with Jermaine in typical obedience classes so that she can try a new facility and be around new dogs and new people to see how she does.  I like this because her biggest issue seems to be fear of something she doesn't know.  I can't wait to hear about how she does and I can't wait for this week to be over so she can finally come home!

Week 1 Update

We got a Week 1 update from Jermaine about Mia's progress.

Her walking skills have gotten a lot better.  She can now walk on a leash without getting distracted by strangers or other dogs.  I never thought I'd see that day.  I imagined that she'd get better, but our trainer tells us that she can now walk by without even reacting to the presence of strangers or dogs.  He continues to work on her sharing skills - she's very possessive of toys and her food/water still with other dogs.  She's a street pup though so that may take some time.  She plays really well with the other dogs in general and is making friends and having fun.  He even called her a sweetheart - which of course I see all the time, but she's not always a sweet heart with other people.  He also practices putting her in the crate when he's cooking dinner so that she can learn to be in there without having a meltdown, and he says that she just hangs out in there without whining or crying (I'll believe that one when I see it).  

I miss my princess a lot and I'm preparing for her return everyday.  She needs a new dog bed and a coat for the winter.  This year she'll have her very own Christmas stocking with her name on it for Santa too!  I can't even imagine all the bones that will be waiting for her in there.  Being an only child can get you many more bones than if you have siblings, so I hear.  We're also having a very small Thanksgiving gathering here at the house as a test to see how she does with people in the house and a small amount of chaos beyond the average day.  I look forward to seeing her progress laid out in front of my family since the last time I had these same people over she went crazy and took a dump in the office.  I'd love to show them that we're not crazy for doing this whole bootcamp thing and that she actually will take home some very important skills.  

Just 1.5 weeks to go!!

Queen of The Car

This is Mia at boot camp and her new friend - little puppy Delilah.  I'm not sure who that white dog is, but I think she may be jealous of Mia's car or cuteness.  Jermaine says that she continues to work hard and learn new things every day.

One item worth mentioning is that if your dog has toys, you should keep them all together and out of reach.  A human decides when playtime begins and when playtime ends.  You hand the toy to the dog and then take it back when it's time to stop.  This can prevent/control toy aggression, and this is one item that Mia will be working on while away at camp and also when she comes back home.

First Short Boot Camp Update

We got our first boot camp update this morning from Jermaine.  Mia is doing really well with training, he's finding that she's very responsive to what he's serving to up to her.  He did find that she has an additional issue that we had no idea about.  She has a mild case of toy aggression where she's not willing to share toys with other dogs and lashes out towards them when they try to take one away from her.  We've never actually seen her in a situation where she'd need to share toys.  During play dates there are never any toys laying around, and at daycare we don't see her.  Jermaine thinks that this is a habit that she picked up while at daycare and likely the people working there didn't think it was a big deal and likely never stopped the behavior.  I would agree with that.  I think that the people at her daycare are wonderful people but there are a lot of dogs and they can't watch and correct every single bad behavior.  I think that she probably learned this well before daycare when she was living in her foster home with 13 other dogs -- which is like crazy talk.  Who can care for 13 dogs?  I am sure the woman meant well, but like really?  13 dogs in 1 house?

Jermaine took a video of her walking on a leash to post on his facebook page, I'll post a link when it turns up!  I'm interested in seeing which part of the walk he decides to show.  The first part is not so good but by the end of a walk she's typically great.  I have a feeling he'll show the bad part now, and the good part in 3 weeks... although there should be only good parts by then.

I'm actually not as depressed and sad as I thought that I would be since Mia has been gone... I've been lonely but not so much broken down and upset.  Work has been really busy during the day (it's super busy season) and Abe and I have a million and one projects to do before she comes home - we haven't progressed very far admittedly.  I have been able to find time to play Words with Friends and spend lots of time reading The Game of Thrones (freaking love it) so that's a positive.  I can't wait to see photos and video of my princess!

Off To The Slammer

My little princess got picked up today and taken to a 3 week boot camp full of obedience training and behavioral adjustment.  When I tell that to people they think I'm crazy, but you know what is crazy?  Not having control of your dog, that is crazy.  Jermaine our dog trainer is going to help her cope with her fears and get over being so afraid all the time (she's the biggest wimp ever) and he's going to help her learn how to focus and listen to her handlers.  He's going to do it the right way and there won't be any shock collars or mean things like that.  As much as I love my dog, at the end of the day I'm the dog owner and she is my pet.  It's our responsibility to make sure she's cared for but also that she is controlled so other people aren't ever effected by a giant Mia meltdown.  She's not as bad at many of the dogs that he trains, which is good, but we just don't have the skills to help her the way she needs it.  

It was really hard to watch her be taken out of my house knowing that I wasn't going to have a couch-mate for a long time, or a puppy to kiss on the nose.  She has become such an important part of my life and I already do feel a giant gaping hole without her here.  We will be getting updates and photos sent to us via email/text/phone from Jermaine on an every other day basis with a longer update at the close of each week.  At the end of her sentence in the big house, he'll bring her back home and we'll spend some time with him going over what she has learned and how we can maintain it at home.

My expectations for the completion of this training are that she will be able to:
1. Not bark at or jump up on strangers, or kids
2. Be in public without barking at others or pulling on the leash
3. Go on walks and see other people and dogs without freaking out
4. Be able to sit in the vet's office without having a total meltdown
5. Respond to our commands and execute them even with distractions going on
6. Go in and out of the crate on command without putting up a fight
7. Control her anxiety level

So most of those items are related.  The bottom line is that if she can learn how to control her anxiety: anxiety of strangers, anxiety of big scary men, anxiety of the unknown, separation anxiety, etc. she will then be able to do just about anything else.  She's a really smart dog so her potential is sky high.

I'm not sure how much I'll keep up her blog while she is away, but I'll be sure to post her photos at boot camp and her updates!

A Gallon of Pee

We decided sort of last minute that we wanted to get Mia groomed before sending her off to boot camp.  I had planned on washing her, but she also needed her nails trimmed and that's just not something that I'm comfortable doing.  I called up her vet office and got her a grooming appointment before her actual vet appointment (conjunctivitis - again) only because I didn't know where else to take her and they are pretty nice there.

I think they did a good job on her because A: she was really really stinky, and B: she is really really squirmy.  My only beef with that whole process is how long it takes.  I dropped her off at 11:30am and she stayed there till 4pm.  Do all grooming appointments take that long?  I am pretty sure they washed her, clipped her, dried her off, brushed her, and then put her in a crate for like 3 hours or something.  I got there and she seemed really annoyed, and then we got her into a room to be seen by her vet and she literally pissed a gallon of pee on the floor and then stepped in it.  This is the first time that she's peed indoors in a month and it was pretty obvious that she Had to go, and it wasn't because she was nervous or like scared or something but that makes me mad.  Why wouldn't they let the dogs go to the bathroom outside?  Maybe they did and maybe Mia just wanted to pee in the room, I don't know.  These are the days that I wish she could talk.

Usually going to the vet office is a nightmare.  We're talking like code Red nightmare and it's a 2 person job.  Today, Abe was stuck on a work call so I had to go alone.  The last time we were there she barked for 10 minutes straight before they finally just threw us in a room to shut her up.  This time we got there and she didn't really do anything.  She sniffed around and looked around everywhere but didn't bark at anyone or any of the 7 or so dogs that passed us by... it was So Weird of her to be so calm.  She did have to be held while the vet examined her eyes, but she didn't put up too much of a fight and then on our way out she sort of began to slowly melt down.  She just really wanted to go home... and so she decided to take it out on a little boy -- well a 10 year old boy.  She just started barking at the kid for no reason, and of course she had to pick on this little kid instead of all the other people we saw while there -- omg, mortifying.  The kid looked at me like "your dog is a scary bitch!!"  I know kid, I know.

At the end of the day, our dog is clean and smells nice.  Her bladder is empty and she's getting better at the vet's office.     

Fox Hound

Doesn't this dog's face on the right look like Mia?  And also the body of the dog on the left...
They are yellow fox hounds, and I'd never really heard of a fox hound until some lady at our daycare said that Mia looked Just like her own fox hound.  Amazing.

I think they do resemble each other pretty closely.  I'm not sure how in he world our rescue group decided that our dog was a yellow lab when she very clearly is not.  I am going to go out on the limb and just guess that labradors are a lot more adoptable than most other breeds.  I love our dog just the same though, so we took the bait.

Clicker Training

We have begun to train Mia at home using "clicker training".  What is this you ask?  This little device just makes a clicking sound when you press the button.  The idea is to use the clicker sound to "mark" the correct action.  Many times a dog will sit and then 5 seconds later you say good girl, and she's already running around again, and you've missed the mark.

You command the dog to sit.
The dog stares at you.
Nothing happens.

You command the dog to sit, and this time she lowers her butt to the ground.
When her butt hits the ground, click the device immediately, and then give her a treat.  Don't click and treat at the same time.

The dog will learn commands faster using the clicker because she'll want to perform for the noise and the following treat.  Eventually the dog will be able to execute commands without the clicker, but for a while she will need it in order to learn.  You can use the very small "training treats" and break them in half, so the dog just gets a morsel to minimize the calories.

Without the clicker, Mia can currently sit, lay down (sometimes), come (sometimes), and "up up" which just means to jump into the car or run up the stairs.  She really needs help learning "drop it", "heel", etc.  She can perform most of the tasks without the clicker, but with the clicker it's immediate.  I say: Mia Come and she'll come trotting around the corner, and before it she would sometimes show up... it depends if she had better things to do.  Distraction is also an issue that we're trying to overcome.  So hopefully it continues to go well and can be used as tool in her obedience training.

Disaster

Oh, yesterday with Mia started out so nicely.  She is an expert at fooling us into thinking she's just a little angel...

We had a lot of yard work to get done so we decided that she's been so good lately that we both went outside to do our chores (lawn mowing, twig and branch collection, etc.) and we opened the front door keeping the glass door closed so she could sit and watch.  Previously, she had passed my 45 minute test where I planted bulbs in the front yard and let her sit and watch me and she was perfect.  There was only a little whining but overall it was really an A+ behavior day.  So we did our chores, and only got about 75% done when Abe needed to run back inside to get something.  He came back out and said, "go see what your precious little muffin did to the house."  I was like, "WHATTTTT!!! AHHH!"

Scene:  An entire roll of paper towels chewed up and distributed throughout the office and entryway.  A red solo cup that previously held paint - half eaten, half destroyed, all over the place.  And the worst part.... gray paint paw prints on the office rug.

[Mia inspecting the paint damage after I cleaned up most of the mess.  The bones indicate where the paint is since the photo didn't show it very clearly]

She had somehow weaseled herself into the dining room where we hadn't finished cleaning up from our painting last weekend and brought it all over the place.  I wasn't aware that paint that was dry could become wet again... and this is obviously all our fault 1. for leaving her uncrated alone in the house as a puppy, and 2. not taking every single thing that would be bad out of her reach.  I took things like electronics, mail, magazines, liquids, etc. out of her reach but I never thought that she would be able to get into the dining room - foolishly.  She is pretty much an expert at getting into trouble and now she has paint on her chest, nose and paws... not that she cares.

Now she needs to earn back our trust... which may take months and months.  That innocent mug isn't going to persuade me anymore.

Barks a Lot

Mia and I had a lovely morning this Saturday.  We got up, ate, used the "bathroom" and then hung out on the couch together for a couple hours.  Abe got up and came downstairs and Mia was happy to see him, and then suddenly out of nowhere she went crazy.  She went into the kitchen and started madly barking all around at nothing but she was obviously startled or scared or something.  Normally if she's barking its because there is another dog outside and she's looking out the window, or she can see someone else around.  We tried to figure out if she was barking at her reflection or if she had heard a noise, but she continued to be very upset for another 10 minutes.  Maybe there was a mouse?  I think if there was a mouse she would have tried to catch it or would have been able to target her anger.  Abe looked behind the fridge to see if there was anything there, but of course there was nothing (our fridge is a super tight fit).  This obviously means that we have a ghost right?  A ghost is potentially messing with my dog and I do not appreciate that.  

We were finally able to calm here down and she's happily lounging up against me again.  She's actually done this a couple times before - once with me all by myself at 11pm before we went to bed.  We were in the bedroom and the door was closed and locked (as I like to do when Abe is away) and she suddenly ran up to the door and started barking at it.  Obviously this did not sit well with me, but I'm not stupid enough to go out there and inspect what might have set her off.  Instead I just assumed that all was actually fine and she probably just heard a little creaking noise somewhere... and then we went to sleep.  It's odd because she really makes the worst guard dog ever.  She sleeps through pretty much everything, loud noises don't bother her, and only 5% of strange noises set her off.  Ghosts I tell you.

Ok, maybe not ghosts... but what else?

One of a Kind

Today on our way to work we saw Mia's twin.  For a split second it was like, "OMG THAT WOMAN STOLE OUR DOG!" but it turned out our dog was safe at daycare and we just saw her twin brother or something.  I mean, have you ever seen a dog that looks like this before??  She has so many breeds mixed in with her that its really impossible to say exactly what's going on here.  It got me thinking about what could have happened to her siblings and I know deep down that most of them are probably gone seeing as how she has a bit of a sad past, but like what if we actually saw one of her brothers strolling through the financial district of Boston?!  He was obviously really good looking, just like her:

She's been sleeping in the family room in her crate all week with no problems at all.  This surprises me a great deal but I guess at the same time when she's tired, all she wants to do is go to sleep.  She will completely ignore us if she's in the mood for a nap.  One time we almost took her to the doggie ER because she was knocked out cold and we thought she was dead.  I wish that I was kidding on that one.  We're not overly dramatic at all... we're just new at having a dog in the house and are very attached to her. - she's my little princess.

This morning she also found a way to wiggle out of her pretty purple harness so I think we'll not be using it as much anymore.  Luckily, I was on our gated deck so she didn't try to run away seeing as it was 6:30am and there's no way I'd be able to get her back.  I'd just be running around screaming her name with an empty leash and a poop bag.  I don't even know my neighbors, none of that experience would end well at all.

Tomorrow, we have a new task.  A 20 foot leash came for her, and when we put her in the car, we need to feed the 20 foot leash to the front seat and each time she barks at people or dogs walking down the street we need to man up and give her a little tug to get her attention.  When I say "little tug", I sort of mean a medium tug... one that will get her to snap out of it.  Our dog trainer this is the best way to handle  it and it shouldn't take her too long to learn.  She's gotten better on her own already, so hopefully this will also be pretty quick!

Moving the Crate

Mia's first night sleeping in her crate in the family room went Ok.  We moved her to try and help her separation anxiety per the advice of our dog trainer, and really it's better for us as well.  She preferred sleeping in our bedroom (also in her crate) but she got over it eventually.  I had prepared myself for a night of crying and whining and howling... but it was sort of anticlimactic.  The only thing that even happened is that she pawed her attached water bowl so hard that water spilled everywhere but it didn't break.  It will be going back on tonight when she likely throws another fit of some sort.  I'm pretty sure that I could hear her trying to dig her way out by pawing at the door too, but the crate is stronger than her.  Maybe her separation anxiety isn't as bad as we thought it was.  Although she knew we were in the house and that's a whole different issue than when we would actually be leaving.  I'm pretty sure that if we put a nanny cam on her when we left, we would find her being all kinds of bad and loud - tearing her towels apart, howling, going crazy, etc.  and that's sort of like my dream, I just want to know how bad it really is.

Yes, all she has in her crate is a crate mat and 2 towels.  She has a bed but when she's distressed, she will literally eat it.  She will chew it and chew it and swallow it, and the last thing I want is to find her with some kind of digestive issue... so until she learns to control those reactions, Mia can't have soft things in her crate with her.  I am the meanest mom alive.  Don't feel too badly for her, she's snuggled up on the couch right now with me.  She doesn't chew the couch, so she can have that and she doesn't chew her doggie bed in the family room either so she has nice things - don't worry!

Hopefully tonight goes either the same or better!  I'm going to guess that it will probably go much worse though.

Small Improvements

We'd been having a really hard time with Mia's behavior since we got her Labor Day weekend, but this week it seems like so many things have improved.

• She let Abe mow the lawn last Sunday without running around the house barking at him
• Yesterday, she let me plant bulbs around the yard without running around the house barking at me
• She's had conjunctivitis for almost a week now, which meant me applying ointment to her eyeballs twice a day for the past 6 days... and really who likes that?  But she got over it.
• Yesterday, she also got her very first bath in the house and didn't freak out (too much)
• The past two nights we've let her sleep in her crate with her door open. She actually stays in there all night anyway, which is great.

It's almost like she knew that the dog trainer was coming for a little visit later today.  We do still have a lot to work on, but she is moving in the right direction.  Yeah, dog trainer - coming at 5pm for a little talk about how to best work on her issues.

She's not quite as interested in watching the Chicago Marathon as I am.  She'd rather jump all over me.

Welcome!

Mia was taking over my other blog (which is supposed to be a running blog) so I decided that she was awesome enough that she really deserved to have her own space on the Interwebs.  All I do is talk about my dog these days, because:
1. She's crazy
2. She's the cutest little thing
3. The never ending work that goes into having a dog

I think people are really quick to judge a dog upon first impression which is why we really need to help Mia overcome her fear of strangers.  It's funny because when she first met us... we were strangers and she never had any issue with us at all.  Not even a week later she was barking at everyone else in the world but the two of us.  On walks she barks at other people and other dogs, but she loves people and she loves dogs... so it makes no sense to me.  She has so much fun at doggie daycare playing with the other puppies so I just can't figure out how walking down the street and seeing a dog is any different.

She is wonderful though, she's like my shadow - she follows me all over the house and loves to just be around me and Abe.  She's also weaseled her way on to the couch with me.  I lay down a blanket and then let her jump up and watch tv with me... and I know that is a slippery slope but I'm happy and she's happy so like whatever.  I always said that she wasn't going to be allowed on the furniture, to eat human food, or to sleep in the bed.  Hopefully I'm able to stay strong and not cave to those other things, she can't have every little thing that she wants... can she?

Her favorite things are - treats, sleeping, walks, and Nylabones.
Her least favorite things are - going in her crate, strangers, and when it rains.

Each week we make some good progress with Mia, and this blog will following her development in our family.